Thanks to my esteemed contributors for their input.
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And yes, your favorite bar may be left out, so write me at and let me know your thoughts.Īnd next month, I think it’s time to revisit this list, take new suggestions, and see which watering holes people are loving now. And after the Top 3, read on for a state-by-state round-up of what scored raves from our contributors. They’re the ones that people chimed in about the most. To add a bit of pomp and circumstance, I’ve got the Top 3 bars picked.
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After all, the more things get mixed up, the wilder things get, right?
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And interestingly, most of the places tend to draw a mix of people: Old and young, rich and not-so-rich, men and women, high-class and trashy, gay and lesbian and trans and then some. And the surprising common theme which evolved was the soft-spot people have in their hearts for kistchy, dive-y, messy bars where a sketchy queen might be found lip-synching to Crystal Waters ’til the wee hours. The results that poured in are personal, rather than scientific. Because When I think of the “Best Gay Bars,” I think of places where raucous theme nights are the norm, where the locals are crazy and possibly hot, and where fun, unpredictable, bad behavior abounds. I wanted the places where the booze flows freely, where the crowd is crazily unpredictable, where there’s always the opportunity for anything to happen. I encouraged them to judge with their hearts (and the wrecked livers) when making their picks I didn’t necessarily want a list of the nicest, glossiest, most high-tech or slickest or “coolest” gay bars. In January of 1976, when I came to Columbus as a Visiting Professor at the Ohio State University Law School, I also moved to the city to explore the gay world for the first time in my life (I was 32).Last June, I sent out a request to an esteemed collection of travel writers, media pros, party people and just super-social gay folks to find out which were their favorite bars in the U.S.
THE EAGLE GAY BAR COLUMBUS OHIO HOW TO
How to find a gay bar, for example, was a puzzlement. I solved that particular problem by looking up “Cocktail Lounges” in the Yellow Pages, picked out one on Gay Street (yes, there is such a downtown street), and phoned it. I knew it wouldn’t likely be a gay bar, but that didn’t matter. When the bartender answered, I asked him if this was a gay bar, and, surprised, he said darkly that it was not. “What’s the name of the gay bar?” I asked. After a brief pause, he snarled, “The Kismet,” slamming down the phone. That night I went to the Kismet (which I also looked up in the phone directory], but, not knowing that (particularly in those very homophobic days) gay night life didn’t start until after midnight, I arrived at 8 pm. The huge bar had only about ten people it: very strange people.
THE EAGLE GAY BAR COLUMBUS OHIO MOVIE
#THE GAY BARS COLUMBUS OHIO MOVIE#įellini could have cast a successful movie from the ten patrons lounging around in the Kismet at 8 pm on a Friday night. I eventually did figure out gay life, though in the beginning I stayed deep in the closet. Coming out is a gradual process: you tell this friend, and that friend, and soon you suspect that everyone knows, even at work, and it becomes an open secret. Īfter the early scary part of coming out, and the “no standards” wild phase, eventually I found love and acceptance in the gay world, and even started coming out to casual strangers if they innocently asked questions like, “You married?” In many parts of the country this casualness might seem routine today, but it was shocking in the late 70s.
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The Stonewall Riots that had started the modern gay movement weren’t ten years old until 1979. As the Queer Nation agitators of the next decade put it, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.” I came out whenever doing so was relevant for two reasons: I wanted to shock people into thinking about it, and-frankly-I didn’t care much about their reaction (unless it involved enforcing the heterosexual viewpoint with a baseball bat).